In The Moonlight
by tvfan69
Summary: The Legends have seen some crazy things as it is, so by now you would think that they were prepared for anything. But that isn't always the case. Now the future is at stake once again, along with the fate of one of their own. But who brought this strange plague to 1906 in the first place? and will they be able to stop it before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

Everything so far was making for a refreshingly calm and relaxing day aboard the Waverider. They were docked in the temporal zone and after the long string of recent missions just about everyone took the opportunity to get some extra sleep or simply work on any personal projects. It was just what the team needed; some time to themselves. Sara couldn't remember the last time she had stayed in bed until noon, although on a time ship that is nothing more than a figure of speech, but the point is still there. Ray also made good use of the time, as he still had a few finishing touches to make on his new suit. Mick was probably the only member of the team not content with the rare situation, but he managed to entertain himself with a daylong marathon of explosion-based movies. As the down day was winding to a close and the team was just sitting down to dinner, meatloaf as there are only so many recipes that are good for feeding the entire team, the aberration alarm sounded.

"Ugh," Sara groaned as the seven of them pushed away their plates and vacated their seats. "Should've guessed."

"Should've known better that we can't get one day off." Jax grumbled as the group began making their way towards the library.

"What are you guys complaining about?" Mick asked, "We finally get to see some action."

"Haven't you been watching action movies all day?" Stein questioned the arsonist.

"Exactly, I'm itching for a fight." Mick replied as they reached their destination and gathered around Nate's temporal seismograph.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Mick, we might be able to get away without everything going wrong." Sara warned,

"Yeah right," Jax snorted at such a farfetched idea, but Ray, on the other hand, shrugged.

"There is a first time for everything." He said, always the optimist.

"Ok," Nate interrupted the discussion as he began reading the coordinates that his machine had been able to trace. "Looks like the aberration is originating from… California 1906."

"Are you sure?" Ray asked almost as soon as he heard Nate's announcement, "Because that's the time and place of one of the biggest natural disasters in American history."

"And for those of us who spent most of our school years in Juvie, that would be what exactly?" Mick questioned from where he stood at the back of the group.

"The Great San Francisco Earthquake." Nate supplied, "It was a 7.8 magnitude, resulted in enormous fires all across the city, and the death toll is still uncertain but thought to be well over 2,00 at least." He explained, "In simple terms, it was bad."

"And something tells me it's about to get even worse." Amaya deadpanned, one didn't need to be a historian in order to determine that one of a country's most devastating events being messed with could yield cataclysmic results.

"So let's go check it out," Sara ordered before making her way for the door, the others following right behind her until they all reached their jump seats.

* * *

When the Waverider touched down the crew found themselves flying over some woods with what appeared to be a small town off in the distance, not a city like San Francisco.

"I thought you said we were going to San Francisco?" Mick questioned Nate while Sara landed them in a small clearing of the woods.

"I thought we would be," The historian spluttered as they touched down and removed their restraints.

"Well this is where the coordinates led us," Sara assured him whilst walking over to the holotable and bringing up their current location. "And we are currently… 20 miles from the city."

"What are we doing way out here?" Amaya questioned and Sara shrugged.

"Guess we'll have to find out, what's the date of the earthquake?" She asked, turning her attention to Nate.

"April 18th, 1906." He supplied before Sara turned back to the charts displayed on the screens of the table.

"Ok, looks like we've landed on April 16th, in the middle of the afternoon. So that gives us about a day and a half to figure out what's going wrong." She declared and so it was without any further discussion that they all made their way down to the fabrication room.

* * *

"Where is everybody?" Amaya questioned after they had left the Waverider and headed to the nearest town. The place was practically deserted, not a living soul was anywhere in sight. The windows of just about every shop displayed an open sign and yet there was no one wandering the sidewalks or anything.

"Don't know," Nate replied as he looked around and took in the vacancy of the town. "Maybe we should stop in somewhere," he suggested.

"There's a bar," Mick said immediately, pointing to a building not too far ahead of them and breaking off from their group in the direction of it.

Sara rolled her eyes before following the pyro and the rest of the team followed suit.

By the time they reached the entrance of the building Mick was already seated at the bar and ordering his first drink, the first of many if he were to get his way.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Amaya volunteered before anyone could say anything about Mick, and made her way across the rather large room to sit beside her teammate.

The bar wasn't anything fancy, just a dark interior filled with tables and the counter running along the wall opposite the entrance. A few of the tables and stools were occupied by people the Legends could only assume were regulars of the establishment and so far no one had paid more attention than a glance to the strangers who entered, which was almost always a good thing when it came to this particular team of time travelers.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one seemed to be giving them a second thought the group went and sat down at one of the vacant tables, with Sara and Ray taking it upon themselves to go up to the bar and get some drinks.

"This is odd, isn't it?" Stein observed as he took his seat.

"Odd?" Jax questioned skeptically, "It's the middle of the day and there's barely anybody around, I know it's a Monday and people are probably at work but still." He said just as Sara returned, alone, with their drinks and passed them around, ignoring Stein's obvious discomfort over the fact that his young partner was now of drinking age.

"Well Ray made a friend," she informed them, cocking her head back over towards the bar where Ray was chatting rather seriously with the bartender. "Hopefully he'll be able to tell us if it's normal for the streets here to be deserted during the day."

"Then what are Mick and Amaya doing?" Nate asked before he took a sip of his beer, not seeing why those two needed to be so far from the rest of the team if they weren't doing anything useful.

Sara glanced back over her shoulder at the two once she had sat down before turning back to her own drink and shrugging.

"First date?" She guessed, though it was very hard to tell if she were serious or not. In any case Nate practically choked on his beer while Stein rolled his eyes and a sly look crossed Jax's face as he too spare a look over at the distanced teammates, suddenly aware of how much they tended to gravitate towards one another.

"Anyone want to make a bet on them hooking up?" He asked gleefully and Stein was beginning to look more and more disappointed by the second.

"We did not come here to gamble on the private lives of Ms. Jiwe and Mr. Rory, Jefferson." He reprimanded his young partner.

"Besides," Sara began; taking a peanut from the bowl in the center of the table and using two fingers to crush it open, popping the nut into her mouth while her fingers continued to fiddle with what was left of the shell. "Amaya's from 1942, and I don't think they were much for hooking up back then. That being said she has picked up a lot of habits that to her are futuristic…" The blonde thought aloud, "I give it two months." She finally decided on and Jax grinned wickedly, understandably thrilled to have someone encouraging him.

"You're on, I'll bet a month." He countered and the two shook hands, the other two clearly wanting nothing to do with their little wager.

Meanwhile, over at the bar, Ray had decided to ask the bartender about the mysterious lack of people in the town and when the man confirmed that it was not in fact normal before walking off to tend to another customer he decided to stay sitting there at the counter. Eventually the bartender finished with the patron and, seeing that Ray had not rejoined his strange friends, returned to his section of the counter.

"No one knows how it started," he began with a rather solemn look coming to rest across his features. "But almost a month ago the first attack came from the very edge of town. Mr. Patton has always been a very calm man, never seen him so much as raise his voice. But then his daughter showed up to the seamstress's shop with a long gash across her face." He began darkly, "She looked like she had been attacked by an animal, and she insisted that she had."

"But it was her father?" Ray guessed, a sinking feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.

"Yes and no," the bartender replied before he continued with his tale, and the more he went on the crazier Ray thought he was. But yet when all was said and done he couldn't help but consider the story. He is a time traveler after all, crazy isn't exactly something that he can carelessly rule out.

"Thank you," he said once the bartender had finished, rising from his seat so that he could go relay the information to the others.

"You and your friends might want to consider moving on, and quickly." The other man warned while polishing a glass and Ray nodded before finally heading over to the table where his friends, still minus Mick and Amaya, were gathered.

"Well it's about time," Nate said as his genius friend sat down, "What did the bartender have to say?"

"And do you want in on a bet?" Jax piped up, still giddy about the prospect of making things a little more interesting around the ship.

"No thanks, I'm good." Ray said, obviously shaken by whatever it was that the bartender had told him. "He said, and this is going to sound completely insane, but he said that some of the people in this town have been turning into werewolves."

The entire team stared at him, completely silent. He waited for one of them to say something, anything, and finally after what seemed liked forever Sara answered his prayers.

"Werewolves?" She asked skeptically, "You think that the people here are slowly becoming a city of werewolves?"

"Not slowly, quickly." Ray corrected,

"Dear God he actually believes it." Stein said in shock, he and the others still looking at Ray as though he had completely lost his mind.

"We've seen zombies," the scientist said in his defense, "We've seen mutant hawk people, we used to fight alongside two demigods for crying out loud! And you two are capable of merging into one person who is able to light himself on fire!" He exclaimed, gesturing wildly to Jax and Stein as Sara leaned across the table to put her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to hold him still in his seat.

"Ok calm down, you're getting a little excitable." She warned in a hushed tone, looking around to make sure that nobody had heard anything that he had just said. Fortunately most of the bar's other patrons seemed to have left by now and the bartender either wasn't listening or didn't care. The same could be said for Mick and Amaya.

With a sigh of relief Sara settled back into her chair, "Ok," she said, "You're right. We have seen some pretty crazy things, and a town full of werewolves does sound like a hell of an aberration. So did your new friend give you any kind of lead in this?" She asked and Ray nodded.

"He said that the attacks started almost a month ago, and that ever since then the number of wolves has grown each night. More and more people wake up disoriented every morning, a lot of them with blood on their hands. A lot of people are quarantining themselves to their houses, either for their own protection or…" He trailed off, licking his lips and rather uncomfortable with this whole situation. "Or the protection of others." He continued, "Some of the first people who were affected are being held at the local asylum, most of them have supposedly gone insane from the confusion and guilt over the things that they've done in wolf form, but he thinks a few of them might still be able to help us." He said and it was all too obvious that the other four were still very skeptical about his idea, but with no other lead as to why they're here and, as Sara said, the possibility of werewolves being one hell of an aberration, it was going to be their best bet.

"Mick, Amaya." Sara called as she and the boys stood up, "Let's go."

"Where we going?" Mick asked, him and Amaya hopping off their stools as the rest of the team walked over to them. He wasn't too sure that he liked the smirk on Sara's face; as such an expression almost always meant trouble whenever it came to her.

"Maybe you'd know if you had been listening." She mocked before following the rest of the team out the door, all of them content to let Mick and Amaya spend the entire walk to the asylum in curious silence.


	2. Chapter 2

The asylum, from the outside, looked a lot like a prison. It was a tall building made out of painted white bricks, with steel bars defining every window. When they approached the building Amaya paled as she finally realized where it was they were going. She had seen the inside of an insane asylum once in her era while on the job and the conditions had been so horrifying that she'd had nightmares for weeks, as well as grown so lightheaded that Rex had needed to keep ahold on her as they left. Being now thirty-six years earlier she knew that whatever was inside was going to be even worse than what she had seen before.

"I'm going to stay out here," she declared as they reached the front entrance of the building, "And if any of you are faint hearted, you might want to too." She insisted when the team looked at her skeptically. Still, she didn't need to explain herself or her warning any further.

They had all been to high school, even Mick for some amount of time, and had taken a history class that covered this era. They knew that what was waiting for them on the inside would be far less than humane, and the fact that one of their mentally stronger members was opting not to go in only warned even further of how disturbing it could be.

"Why don't you stay and keep Ms. Jiwe company, Jefferson?" Stein suggested and, as expected, his younger partner look less than thrilled about the idea.

"Man how many times do I have to say it?" He demanded, "You do not need to shield me from history!"

"Alright," Sara interrupted, shutting down the age-old argument before it could truly begin. "Amaya's right, what we're about to walk into is going to be more depressing than anything we've seen yet, so nobody is going to think less of anyone who decides to stay behind." She declared but still no one else moved to stay outside, a move that they could all tell at least some of them would be regretting. But no one could be forced into staying behind and so the entire group, minus Amaya, walked into the building.

Only one word could be used to describe the inside of the asylum: chaos.

It was nothing but complete and utter chaos in the lobby of the building. There were patients huddled against the walls and in corners, some screaming out in pain despite no sight of anything to cause it. There were two who looked to be attempting to strangle each other as one nurse stood in between them and pushed them apart while two more pulled at them for the same effect. They were all clothed in hospital gowns with varying degrees of rips through the material ranging from a single small tear to the few patients who were completely naked. An overwhelmingly fowl odor was also resonating from practically everywhere in the building and although no one on the team could place exactly what it was they were sure it had more than one form of bodily fluid mixed in somewhere.

"I think," Stein said with a gulp, "That I'll go help Ms. Jiwe with keeping watch." He decided before turning tale and exiting the building.

"Me too," Jax decided, right on the heels of his older half.

So that left Sara, Nate, Ray, and Mick to approach the nurses station where a middle-aged woman who probably wanted to be anywhere other than here was already staring at them.

"Can I help you?" She asked when they approached.

"I hope so," Nate began, "We're detectives from San Francisco, we were asked to come and investigate the… unusual epidemic you folks seem to be facing." He lied and the woman eyed Sara skeptically, something that the blonde was used to by now.

"You should have come earlier," she finally snapped at Nate, "The sun will be setting soon, and when the sun sets is when it starts."

"Well it's a long journey from San Francisco, we got here as soon as we could." Ray assured her with a smile, though her sour face didn't ease up in the least.

"Hm," she huffed before coming out from behind her desk and setting off down the hallway, leaving the four Legends behind to glance at each other before following her.

"They're all either crazy or silent," she deadpanned while leading the group up a few cases of stairs until they emerged on the fourth and final floor of the building.

She said more, but nothing important, and nothing that Mick paid any attention to.

He tried, oh he tried desperately, but he was far too distracted. With each step they took down the hall it was more underfed people hunched over and screaming out at some invisible torture, or maybe not so invisible if they were aware of where they are. There were feces smeared on walls and blood spattered on some of the floors of the open rooms, which he wondered why some of them were open. The staircase offered a small reprieve to his disturbance, but just barely. It was still white brick walls, all around him. The screams were still echoing from the halls that they walked past and when they emerged on the fourth floor the heat of the building did nothing to help. The great stench only worsened and he hoped that he didn't look as pale as he felt. He wanted, needed, to get out of here. He couldn't be here, he couldn't. But his stupid pride practically screamed at him that he had already made the choice to come and refused to believe that the team wouldn't judge him for turning back now. He thought he would be able to handle it, thought that after all these years and all the shit he's been through that he would be able to face his worst fear dead in the eye and walk away unaffected; but he was wrong. Walking through the halls of the asylum he felt even more terrified than he had when he was fourteen and was first taught about these places from times gone by, not even a week after the fire that set him irreversibly on this path. This was what happened to people like him, and now he was standing among the nurse and the others as if he were one of them. But he wasn't. He had an overwhelming urge to reach for his lighter, to set this whole place ablaze and watch it burn. But if he did he wouldn't get out, so why in the hell was he thinking about it?

"You're going to crash and burn Mick," Oh God not now. He could hear that snarky voice behind him as they walked and it took everything in his power not to turn around and tell the ghost to shove it. "I told you to get out while you still had a chance," the voice continued as the other three entered a room and before Mick could the ghost stepped, not appeared, but freaking stepped between him and Haircut's backside as if it were actually there and alive and a person, incapable of just randomly appearing out of thin air. "But now, now you're screwed no matter what." The ghost waited for a reply but Mick wouldn't give one, he would NOT give himself away in the middle of a mental asylum of all places. "You're going to do one of three things," the ghost went on with a sadistic grin, "A: You're going to get a little too carried away when this inevitably all goes to hell and the nurses here will make sure you never see the light of day again. B: You're going to tell me to shut up and then, assuming you get out of here, you'll have to explain to the team that you've been having conversations with the voices inside your head. Or C: You'll just let all the panic of what could happen build until you finally pass out, or throw up. Meaning that when all is said and done you'll have to tell the team why, and I can't imagine they'll want you protecting history once they know EXACTLY how unstable you really are."

"Mick?" Nate's voice snapped the arsonist back to reality and prompted the vision of Snart to disappear without a trace. "You alright buddy?" The historian continued, now earning the attention of both Sara and Ray, as well as the nurse.

"Yeah," Mick assured them as he made his way into the room.

"Are you sure?" Ray questioned, taking in his friend's rather pale and shaken appearance. "You don't look too good."

"Yeah, do you want to go wait with the others outside?" Sara asked but Mick only shook his head and lowered himself into the wooden chair not far from the doorway.

"I'm fine," he insisted, lying of course. Five minutes ago he would've jumped at the chance to go, knowing the others would be ok with it, but now he needed to prove it to himself that he could handle this. Plus he wasn't entirely sure he would make it all the way outside without dropping first, and there was no way he wanted to pass out in this place.

Sara nodded wearily at his choice, as did Nate and Ray. The nurse didn't really seem to care.

"This is Mary," the nurse announced, "She was one of the first victims, good luck." She continued before walking out of the room, calling a warning back over her shoulder for the group not to stay too long if they know what's good for them.

Mary was… well actually the four time travelers couldn't really see Mary. In the center of the room was a rather large wooden chest; the sides reinforced with wire strung between the boards and the front a grated door. The branding on the top marked the odd chest as not a chest at all, but a dog cage. Getting onto her knees Sara peered through the grate of the door and not so much to her shock as to her horror she found herself staring at something that was clearly not a dog, but a human.

"Mary?" She asked and the girl looked up but said nothing. In the dim light, dimmed even more by the fact that there was no light in the cage, Sara could make out that Mary was probably a few years younger than Jax with dark hair and even darker eyes. She could also see a long scratch starting above the girl's left eye, running over her nose, and down her right cheek.

"Mary?" Ray echoed Sara, crouching down across from her and also looking into the cage. "We just want to talk, we can help you." He promised and those words seemed to at least peak the girl's curiosity.

She shifted her position from a huddled ball in the back of the cage to her hands and knees and leaned over, as there wasn't enough room for her to actually crawl anywhere. She looked directly at Ray, her face showing fear and desperation but also, likely due to his words, a new glimmer of hope in her brown eyes. She remained silent, waiting for him or any of the others to tell her exactly what it was that they wanted from her.

"We've heard," Ray began, nervously licking his lips when he realized that they might actually get somewhere with his girl. "We've heard that you were one of the first attacked… by your dad." He said and at that Mary nodded solemnly.

"I don't know what happened to him," she said in a small and quite frankly frightened voice. "I don't know if he was always like this or if something somehow turned him into it," she continued, stopping herself briefly in order to wipe away a few tears that were brimming in her eyes.

"We think something made him this way," Sara assured the girl gently, "We can help him too, but we need to know what happened to him." She said but Mary only shrugged, she honestly had no idea what had happened to her father.

"He went to work in the factory before I woke up, I was making dinner when he came home and he seemed fine. But then the sun set and…" She trailed off, a shudder passing through her body as it became all too obvious that she had no desire to think about the horrible night.

"Ok, factory. What factory does your dad work in?" Sara asked gently and Mary looked up, about to answer, when she froze.

"Mary?" Ray questioned but the girl gave no response, "Mary?" He tried again but still nothing.

"Oh no," Nate said, gaining the attention of Ray and Sara who turned to see that he was looking out the window at the now darkened sky.

A loud barking sound mixed with the sound of the wooden cage being rattled turned everyone's attention back to Mary, or what had been Mary just minutes before. In place of the timid girl was now a snarling wolf with black fur every bit matted as the teenager's hair. She was currently throwing her body against the grated door of her crate as well as clawing at it.

"Mary! Mary calm down!" Ray shouted as he and Sara jumped to their feet.

"I don't think she's going to listen Ray!" Nate announced,

"Run!" Sara ordered, taking note that the lock wasn't going to hold for much longer, not to mention that there were undoubtedly plenty of other wolves trying to break out of their cages in other areas of the building.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Mick muttered as he rose from his seat and followed his teammates out of the room, trying not to pay any attention to the way that the world was spinning around him even more now that he was standing again. Instead he was trying to focus on getting out of here. That's all his mind was thinking about, the exit. Not about the unknown number of freaking werewolves that currently populated the asylum. Not about the sound of metal clattering against broken metal somewhere behind him, or that by the time he felt the sharp pain of canine teeth sinking into his leg it was too late.


	3. Chapter 3

A loud cry of pain had Sara, Ray, and Nate all whirling around only to find themselves staring at the horrifying sight of Mick down on one knee before falling even more forward to brace his weight on his hands, the source of his suffering being a brown furred wolf with it's jaw clamped around his leg.

For a moment the three of them just stood there frozen in the hallway, almost oblivious to the sounds of screams and howls as more and more wild dogs spilled into the corridor with each passing second. Their eyes were locked onto Mick to see what he would do, to see if he would soon follow along with the canines or remain a human. To their horror he did exactly as they had expected, and his body began morphing, his green eyes brightening until they were almost yellow. He used his newfound claws to tear away at his clothes, which were already being replaced by thick black fur. The transformation didn't take long, only mere seconds in fact, but to the three watching it felt like an eternity. Before they knew it their friend, or former friend maybe, was snarling at them with a feral hunger.

"Go! Go!" Nate was the first to snap out if the haze, the other two bolting off at his command. The three of them tore down the stairwell, the howls and barks of wolves filling every direction. By some miracle they were able to make it to the outside of the building without any more of them getting bitten, and that was where they found Firestorm already merged and Amaya looking as though they had all been just two seconds away from charging into the institution.

"Where's Rory?" Jax demanded to know.

"He's uh-" Ray began but he was interrupted by a pack of at least a dozen wolves bursting from the doors of the asylum and flying down the dirt road towards the town, one of them noticeably still wearing the shredded remains of fireman's jacket. "There," the genius finished, pointing vaguely to the pack of runaway dogs.

Jax looked over at Ray with an incredulous expression, but Amaya on the other hand growled as she touched her totem and the ghostly outline of a cheetah came over her body before she took off in a sprint so fast that it possibly could've even made Barry Allen jealous.

For a second they all just watched Amaya go, even those who had been gambling on her feelings for Mick slightly stunned by how quick she was to chase him down.

"Grey wants to know if you guys figured out how to stop these things?" Jax finally addressed the group.

"Not yet but we might have found a lead on where it started, but for now we need to focus on keeping it from getting worse." Sara replied,

"One problem," Ray pointed out, "I don't think any of us is an expert on werewolves!" He practically shouted, taking note that while their team may be more than well equipped to handle science based aberrations the supernatural is just a little bit out of their wheelhouse, despite having a once dead assassin for a team leader.

"I'm no expert but I know that silver is their weakness. It's like kryptonite. Show it to them and they'll back off, cut them with it and they'll go down." Jax explained and although the others did look skeptical, or at least surprised, they didn't really have any better options at the moment.

* * *

Meanwhile Amaya, powered by the spirit of the cheetah, was still racing down the dirt road and had just managed to catch up with the city-bound wolves. It didn't take her long to determine which one was Mick, thanks to some shredded pieces of his familiar clothes still being stuck to his body. She surged forward and tackled him straight out of the pack, the other wolves not even giving the situation a second glance because while wolves may be pack animals by nature these weren't exactly typical wolves they were dealing with. Besides, Mick may look like them but he is not one of them. He's a stranger to them, and no way were these wolves going to suddenly reel around to help a stranger to their pack.

"Snap out of it Mick!" Amaya pleaded through gritted teeth as she struggled to pin him under her while avoiding his flailing claws and snapping jaw. "Mick, you need to control the animal!" She continued, still struggling to keep him down. It wasn't so much his strength that gave him an advantage against her, strength she could combat. But it was how vastly different his body now was in comparison to hers, she didn't want to hurt him too severely with one wrong move on either of their parts. "Mick!" She sneered when he took another attempted bite at her arm only to miss by less than an inch. "I need you to-AH!" She cut herself off with a gasp, unable to finish her sentence once she felt Mick's sharp teeth digging deeply into her shoulder.

* * *

"So what exactly is the plan here?" Nate asked after Amaya ran off after Mick and left the rest of them standing outside of the asylum. They had started after them but Sara called them back, and instead instructed them to go back into the asylum and grab as much silver as they could find.

Not that there was much silver to be found inside of an insane asylum, as the most they could find was a drawer of silver cutlery and a few old candlesticks.

"We lure all the wolves here and then use the silver to put them all to sleep, simple." Sara replied with a bright smile as though to say she knew this entire thing was ridiculous.

"Great, but how are we going to lure every werewolf in town here?" Ray questioned and in response Sara pulled a small, circle shaped device from the waistband of her dress.

"It's the sonic device I used back in my vigilante days," she explained, knowing that while none of her teammates would know what object was just from looking at it, Nate and Ray probably had an idea as to what she was talking about. "It works on a couple different frequencies, including one that can only be heard by dogs." She continued before pressing a small button on the edge of the device and it lit up with a blue glow.

"So how long should it take for every wolf in town to get here?" Jax questioned. He and Stein had separated for the time being but were sure to keep a close proximity to each other for when the battle began.

"Well it might vary depending on how far they are, but I wouldn't bet too long." Sara replied and as if on cue the very faint sound of barking began sounding out from in the distance, and it was growing stronger by the second.

"Here they come," Sara warned when the first few wolves appeared at the horizon line. "Get ready."

At her orders Stein and Jax clasped their hands together and merged into Firestorm, taking to the sky but other than that waiting for further instruction to attack.

The wolves grew closer, and more began coming from other directions. Sara, Ray, and Nate stood in a small circle with their backs to each other while their other two teammates, or technically one, flew above their heads. When the wolves were near enough the fierce battle began. Sara, who thankfully had decided to bring her silver dagger along on this mission, was by far making the most progress. Every wolf she cut practically dropped in a dead faint. She didn't cut them anywhere near deep enough to actually cause them any harm worse than a scar, they are still people during the daylight after all, but just enough to weaken them into unconsciousness. Ray was next in the line of progress, using two candlesticks to defend himself. He was hitting the wolves with them and while they were rarely knocked completely unconscious it was enough to keep them down. Nate helped both of his grounded teammates by using his powers to frighten the wolves, as they believed the shiny surface of his skin to be silver and it had them turning tale and running, consequently right into either a candlestick or a dagger. Firestorm controlled all the chaos from above, sending down a fireball every time a wolf began to get away.

Overall the fight, while long, went off without a hitch and the five Legends were able to return each and every wolf into the asylum, as well as admit a few new ones. The only problem was that, as far as they were concerned, none of those new wolves included Mick. They checked three times but he just wasn't there, and with no sight of Amaya either they were beginning to assume she had lost her fight against him.

That is, until they returned to the Waverider and she showed up ten minutes later with Mick's wolf body unconsciously slung across her shoulders. She was beat up badly, scratches and bruises littering most of the visible skin on her body. But the most noteworthy injury on her was the rather pronounced bite mark where her neck met her shoulder.

"Where should I put him?" She asked, knowing that the med bay chairs weren't exactly designed for sleeping dogs. But no one answered her; instead they were all simply staring at her as though she were a ghost. "What?"

"Your shoulder…" Stein trailed off and Amaya glanced at the wound as though she were just now noticing it.

"Oh yeah," she acknowledged with a grimace but other than that said nothing.

"How come you're not… you know?" Ray asked and Amaya chuckled.

"A wolf?" She supplied, "When I use my totem I'm in control, not the beast. I know how to keep the wolf at bay." She explained and it was another beat or two of silence as the team processed that.

"What are the chances he's going to sleep until morning?" Sara finally asked and Amaya mulled over the question.

"Doubtful," she replied and Sara nodded.

"Leave him in his room, Ray go get a sedative from the med bay and give it to him." Sara instructed and with simultaneous nods Amaya and Ray each set off on their own assignment, leaving Sara to turn to address the rest of the team. "The rest of us need to figure out what's going on here and where in the hell it came from."

"Yeah and we better do it fast, because we only have one day left before San Francisco is a pile of rubble and this place is overrun with refugees." Nate put in and when he did one could almost see the light bulb go off over Stein's head.

"Refugees," he repeated the word as though it were the key to solving all the mysteries of the universe. "Once the earthquake hits there will be refugees all over Northern California."

"And I doubt it'll take long for that to spread." Jax said, realizing that if refugees spread here and then to other places the wolf disease would go with them.

"Wait so the play here is to take out California?" Sara asked, "Why?"

"Well I think that it's probably safe to assume that there is a good chance these werewolves were brought here by someone from the future, in which case, who knows what their endgame might be?" Stein questioned,

"Or it's another moron who crashed here with a disease," Jax theorized but Sara shook her head.

"There's no trace of a time ship anywhere. Whoever's behind this brought it here intentionally, and I'd be willing to bet that we know who that is." Sara said, finally bringing up the group that nobody wanted to name. Merlyn, Darhk, and The Speedster.

"Yeah," Jax finally agreed, "Can't really think of too many people crazy enough to use werewolves, who would also find a way to create them."

"But isn't Malcolm Merlyn from California, why would he want to destroy it?" Stein asked but Sara simply huffed at the question.

"Malcolm once brainwashed his daughter so that she would murder one of her friends, destroying his home before he's even born wouldn't be the craziest thing that he's done." Sara said and that had Nate looking at her with a curious expression.

"Nevertheless," Stein said, "We mustn't jump to any conclusions about our enemies."

"Stein's right," Sara agreed, albeit a little reluctantly. "We need to focus on the problem at hand."

"Which is that half of a town, plus two of our teammates, have all turned into werewolves." Nate commented,

"At least Amaya can control it." Jax said and the others nodded.

"Which might make her our best chance at taking them out," Sara theorized,

"How do you figure?" Nate questioned,

"Well," Sara began with a shrug, "I'm assuming the wolves can understand each other, and with Amaya able to control the wolf in her maybe she can get them to listen to her at least enough to stop attacking people." She explained and while it was clear that the logic was questionable it was also apparent that it wasn't totally flawed.

* * *

Meanwhile Amaya had laid Mick out on his bed, after removing all the clutter that had been piled on top of it of course. She knew that he preferred to sleep in his chair, or at least she could guess as much considering that's where he usually was every time she paid him a visit and the bed looked like it had never been used for anything other than the home for a pile of crap. But his chair, even when reclined to its fullest extent, was awkward for his canine body unless she wanted to attempt curling him up, which she did not. So if he had any objections when he woke up to all of his clutter having been shoved to the floor he could deal with it then. Currently she was sitting at the foot of his bed, her slim fingers gently stroking through his matted black fur. She was keeping a close eye at the horizon outside of his window, watching for the sun and waiting for him to come back to her. When she finally determined that it would only be a matter of minutes before he transformed again she draped a blanket over his body, knowing that his clothes had been torn, shredded, and discarded hours ago.

She felt the transformation before she saw it, and not only in Mick. Yes she could feel his body beginning to tremble and shift beneath her fingers, and yes she was able to feel his fur thinning and receding away. But she hardly registered any of that. What she mostly paid attention to was the sudden feeling of a weight being lifted from her own chest. She felt as though she could finally breathe for the first time in hours. But yet she could still feel it, this nagging feeling still tugging at the corners of her subconscious. She wasn't free, not really, not yet.

It was another hour after the transformation occurred that Mick finally began to stir, Ray's sedative finally wearing off. When he first awoke he looked around the room, surveying his surroundings in a way that he had learned from Leonard. Once he determined that he was in his own quarters, and oddly enough on his bed, he glanced up to see what was the source of the presence that he could just feel down by his feet. He'd like to say that he was surprised to find Amaya sitting there, but for some reason he wasn't. He then looked down at himself only to find that everything from his waist downwards was covered by one of his blankets.

He laid his head back down, a look of complete and utter defeat on his face. Amaya respected that, and gave him a moment to process everything that had happened during the night. She knew he remembered, and he knew that the same could be said for her.

But she didn't know. She didn't know why he was bitten, why he was caught off guard so easily. She didn't know anything about him, she likes to think she does but she doesn't. He didn't mean to bite her, but he was just so angry. He was so tired of hearing her tell him that he could control the animal inside him as if it were the easiest thing in the world. It isn't. Not for him. He's still so angry, still so freaking annoyed that she doesn't see it isn't for him. So although they shouldn't the memories of last night give him a sick sense of joy. He remembers what happened, and so does she.

"Did you tell them?" He finally asked her, shifting his position to stare up at her. "How you beat me?" He decided it would be best to clarify, to not give her an out to dodge the question.

She looked away from him when he asked, her face answering for her. She didn't. She didn't tell the team the reason it took her hours to subdue him. That she lost control.


	4. Chapter 4

Amaya looked up after a minute only to find Mick's deep green eyes waiting for her.

"No," she answered but said nothing more.

"So they don't know?" His low voice rumbled out the question and it was all Amaya could do to keep from rolling her eyes.

"What do you think?" She practically snapped before calming herself. "No, they don't, and I would appreciate it if we could keep it that way." She said and in response Mick hummed in thought, leaving Amaya to sit there and wait for his actual answer.

"Fine," he agreed, "And sorry for biting you, by the way." He said and he was. He hadn't wanted to hurt her, not really. It was just that in that moment he had wanted her to understand how hard controlling the beast is for him. He still does, but the guilt that he hadn't felt in the moment was definitely starting to set in.

"Yeah well," Amaya murmured before getting to her feet, "Can't do anything about it now." She told him while making her way briskly for his door, leaving him alone with his regrets once she was gone.

Well, almost alone.

"Ouch," the sarcastic voice snapped the pyromaniac's attention over to the area where his chair rested, which the ghost of Leonard Snart was leaning casually against. "She sounds mad."

"Well maybe that's because I turned her into a werewolf." Mick snapped but the vision simply rolled his eyes.

"If you're trying to blame you being bitten in the first place on me you're more delusional than I thought." Leonard drawled, letting Mick know that something must really be wrong with his head if the delusion was calling him delusional. "Come on Mick," the vision insisted in an almost sympathetic voice that Mick hadn't expected. "She's never going to understand you, I've known you for thirty years and even I don't understand you."

For once Mick didn't respond to the ghost. He didn't tell it to shut up, didn't defend his odd friendship with Amaya, he just sat there. He knew that the ghost was right, and he didn't like how he felt that fact tearing him apart inside.

* * *

The vision was right about one thing for certain, Amaya was mad. The team would blame Mick's attack on her as an act of mindlessness, and although she really shouldn't she would let them. But she knew that he was completely aware of what he was doing. Most of it was self-defense, or at least she was giving him the benefit of the doubt that it was, but she knew that bite to her shoulder had been intentional. She had seen it in his eyes, and after he turned her the disorientation had cleared up quickly enough that there was no way he wasn't in his right mind by the time he bit her.

Suddenly she was pulled from her thoughts when she saw Nate coming down the hall.

"Hey," he said, "So uh… how are you feeling?" He asked awkwardly and maybe if she weren't already in an annoyed mood from Mick she would've found it funny. But unfortunately she was already annoyed with Mick and he could probably tell that by the frown on her face as she sagged her shoulders and huffed out a sigh.

"Better," she admitted, trying to look on a brighter note in all this. "The wolf is easier to control during the day, but it's still there." She said and he nodded.

"Ok, don't freak out." He said, quickly putting his hands up as if to forewarn from alarm. "But, I think we might have a plan for reversing the effects of… whatever is doing this."

"And why would I freak out about that?" Amaya asked, although she was very skeptical of such a plan if they still have no idea what is causing this epidemic.

"Because to start, we need to take some of your blood." He said,

"Ok let's go," She readily agreed and apparently that was not the response Nate had been expecting. "What?" She asked,

"Nothing," Nate replied, "I just didn't think you would be so willing to let us jab you full of needles."

"I'm pretty sure blood work only requires one needle," She said, taking half a step closer to him. "But you're right." She went on, "Mick and I are infected which means that we might be the best shot at figuring out what's going on."

* * *

While Nate, Ray, and Amaya worked on finding a cure, or at least an explanation, to the werewolf problem, and Mick was still yet to come out of his room, Jax, Stein, and Sara were back in the town and doing all that they could to help the residents prepare for another potential night of werewolf attacks.

Sara was helping the staff at the asylum while Jax and Stein worked with the rest of the town, urging families to bring out all of their silver and leave it outside their doors tonight as a means of defense.

"How is it that there seems to be no law enforcement doing anything about this?" Stein questioned in his normal, though slightly exasperated, voice.

"I think half of them were turned into wolves, and the rest are too scared to do anything." Jax reasoned and Stein nodded before he felt a small tug on the leg of his pants.

Looking down the two halves of Firestorm saw a little girl, her dirty blonde hair falling in a mess of tangles around her face and her clothes noticeably stained with blood that more than likely wasn't her own.

"Oh, um, hello." Stein said but the little girl didn't respond with words, or at all for that matter. She actually looked as though she were suddenly having second thoughts on approaching the two men and considering turning and running away.

"Where are your mom and dad?" Jax asked gently and the little girl, instead of answering, raised her arms in a silent request to be lifted.

Understanding the request Jax bent down and picked her up, and once she was securely in his arms and he had straightened up she leaned over and whispered something into his ear.

"Oh," he said quietly once she had spoken and he turned to Stein. "Her mom and dad were bitten last night." He informed the older man.

"And it's likely that there are others like her," Stein said as the grave realization dawned on him.

"What should we do?" Jax questioned, still yet to put the little girl down.

* * *

"Miss Lance?" The sound of her name suddenly coming through the comms startled the blonde, not that her body language showed it of course.

"What is it Stein?" She asked as quietly and discretely as possible. While the boys were either in town working with the people or on the Waverider working with Amaya, Sara had returned to the asylum to help with security on the doors of some yet to be turned patients, and thus the hallway of a building which is used to lock up the insane probably was not the best place for her to be caught talking to herself.

"We've run into a child, she says that she is four-years-old, and as of last night her entire family has been turned into werewolves." Stein explained and Sara sighed, not exactly thrilled about the prospect of suddenly having yet another problem that needs immediate dealing with.

"Where is she now?" The blonde asked,

"Still with us, but we fear that there may be other children facing the same predicament." The Professor informed, not that such a fear wasn't obvious to Sara.

"Just keep her with you for now, you're going around everywhere and telling people how to defend themselves, odds are you'll find any more kids with that issue in the process." She decided, as always the general understanding was that no one outside of the team ever saw the Waverider unless such a thing were completely unavoidable. The way Sara looked at things they wouldn't be that desperate until nightfall, and hopefully by then Ray, Nate, and Amaya will have found a solution to their problem.

* * *

"Ok," Nate said as he applied some gauze and medical tape to Amaya's arm, "Hopefully this will help us figure out what's happening to these people." He said as he handed the sample of blood to Ray who placed it into the med bay's futuristic centrifuge and they waited for it to analyze.

"So you guys think that Dark, Merlyn, and the Speedster are trying to destroy California?" Amaya questioned, while Ray was taking her blood Nate had informed her about what she had missed on the bridge when she was busy with Mick.

"Yup." Ray replied

"Why?" She asked, just about as confused by the seemingly random plan as the rest of the team.

"Not sure," Nate said, "But my theory is that they came back to this time period in order to use tomorrow's earthquake to their advantage for spreading the wolves all throughout California and maybe a few other places on the West Coast. After all it's only going to be another four years before movie making out on the East Coast start's getting too expensive thanks to big business and film makers will start moving out here where it's cheaper. But if vicious werewolves overrun Hollywood and all the surrounding areas then I highly doubt that is going to happen." He said and when he did he and Ray looked at each other, because apparently this was the first time Nate was voicing his theory out loud.

"You think they want to stop California from being further settled?" Ray asked and Nate simply shrugged.

"I don't know," He admitted, "But I mean they've had stranger plans-"

"No, Nate," Ray said, eyes wide and his head shaking. "Stein asked why Malcolm would want to destroy his home decades before he's even born, what if that's the plan?" He asked, however Amaya and Nate only looked to be very confused by the prospect.

"How would that make any sense?" The historian finally asked.

"Because," Ray began, "Malcolm isn't the only one originally from California."

Again neither Nate nor Amaya understood what it was that he was getting at, but after a moment Nate seemed to finally understand.

"You, me, and Sara." He finally realized and Ray nodded.

"If our ancestors never move out to California," Ray began,

"And with it as a wasteland I doubt we would ever be inclined to do so ourselves." Nate interrupted,

"There's no telling how different our lives will be," Ray warned.

"Or if we'll even be born," Nate offered,

"We may never be recruited for the Legends." Ray finished but the look on Nate's face told that his thoughts were far more severe at the moment.

"Forget us being recruited," he said, "None of us know very much about Captain Hunter's past, for all we know there might not even be any Legends if we don't stop this."

For a moment he and Ray simply stared at each other, Amaya staring at them and wondering if it's possible that Jax and Stein aren't the only two on this ship with a psychic connection, before Ray broke the silence.

"We need to tell Sara," he announced and Nate barely had time to nod before the two of them were scrambling out of the med bay.

Amaya, still sitting in the medical chair as her two friends raced off, sighed and pressed a finger to the comm that they apparently had forgotten they had, most likely along with the fact that Sara was all the way out at the asylum at the moment.

"Sara?" She said and waited for a reply.

"What is it?" The blonde asked over the line.

"The Ringling Brothers have a theory," She said with a sigh before proceeding to explain.

* * *

When Sara heard the theory, although Amaya was interrupted about halfway through by Ray and Nate suddenly shouting over the comms that they must have just remembered they had, she was nearly speechless. She knew their three enemies were crazy and desperate for power, but the sheer number of aberrations that a move like this could cause throughout history was insane, even for them.

"Did the rest of you get that?" The blonde asked into her earpiece once the explanation was finished.

"Yeah, and it's nuts." Jax deadpanned,

"Well to be fair Jefferson, so are our enemies." Stein brought up.

"Or have you not been paying attention?" Mick's gruff voice teased over the line in a slur, drunken no doubt.

Then it was quiet for a minute, as just about everyone was almost certain they had heard Amaya sigh deeply in exasperation, though only for a second. When it became clear that she wasn't going to follow that up with anything Sara spoke back up.

"Where are we with the blood work?" She asked,

"Gideon's working on isolating the mutation, it should be finished by the time Ray and Nate get back here so that they can make an antidote." Amaya announced

"What about the bad guys we're so sure are behind all of this?" Mick asked,

"Do you think they aren't?" Amaya snapped, obviously having caught the doubt in the pyro's voice.

"I think that it's a little strange we haven't seen them anywhere." Mick defended and Sara rolled her eyes, you would have to be deaf to not hear a fight brewing between those two and right now she was not in the mood to deal with it.

"Fair point Mick," she agreed, "When the three of them attacked the Waverider Merlyn pulled a dagger on me, I wrestled it from him and never gave it back. It's on the table in the office, should still have his scent on it."

"What that got to do with me?" Mick asked and Sara smirked, not that he could see it.

"You're part dog for the time being, use it to track him." She ordered.

"Don't know if you're forgetting Cap," Mick's gruff reply came, "But I don't have much control when the wolf takes over."

"Fine," Sara replied smugly, "Take Amaya with you."


	5. Chapter 5

There was a beat of silence over the comms, followed by another. Everyone held their breathe; waiting for someone to defy the order. Amaya's attitude towards Mick had varied from day to day ever since she stowed away on the Waverider, but lately it had been looking as though they were settling into their own sort of friendship. Yet it was evident over the link that today was not a good day for the two of them, and just about everyone was able to correctly guess that it had something to do with the fact that Mick bit Amaya.

"Fine," Mick's voice finally grumbled, followed by Amaya's huff of an agreement.

* * *

A part of Amaya wondered if Sara could tell that she wanted nothing to do with Mick for the time being and maybe that's why the blonde paired the two of them together, another part of her knew that this was the case and was nagging at her to just suck it up and deal with it. As much as she didn't want to listen to that part of herself she didn't really have much of a choice, and so after taking the longest route possible she found herself standing outside of Mick's door.

"Mick," she called, rapping on the door none too gently and not really caring. "Open up Mick," she called, still pounding her fist against the metal of the door. "Mick!"

Suddenly the door swished open and revealed a very peeved pyromaniac standing before her and glowering down at her.

"I can hear you," he assured her, "Or did you forget that I have enhanced hearing now?" He asked and she scowled,

"Believe me, I haven't forgotten." She said sourly but he didn't really seem to be listening, instead his eyes were focused on her neck.

"What happened to your necklace?" He asked, and for the first time since he was bitten he didn't sound like he was trying to make her miserable.

But she was still mad at him, and now he sounded so sincere and it was just too good of a chance to hurt him to pass up, so she told him the truth.

"I had to take it off," she admitted, "I can't control the wolf and the rest of the animals at the same time, so until this whole mess is over my powers are out of commission." She explained and for a brief moment a fleeting glimpse of guilt seemed to flash through Mick's eyes before it was gone and his uncaring mask was back in place.

"Then we better get going," he murmured, pushing past her and making his way for the office without so much as looking back.

* * *

Back in town, after finding a friend of their new little companion's parents to watch over her, Stein and Jax were headed back to the Waverider when they ran into Ray and Nate.

"Where were you guys?" Jax asked, knowing that the plan had been for them to stay on the ship while Gideon analyzed Amaya's blood sample.

"Uh…" Nate was at a loss for an explanation, as he didn't want to be the one to admit that he and Ray had very briefly forgotten about their comms in all the excitement of a theory coming together and had raced off to find Sara, though he was sure everyone knew that based on how the two of them had interrupted Amaya's explaining of the theory.

"We uh… never mind." Ray said when he couldn't think of an excuse either.

"Very well, how long do you think it will take you to create an antidote for our little problem?" Stein questioned and Nate shrugged while also letting out a nervous sigh in response.

"Hopefully not long, because at 5:12 tomorrow morning San Francisco is going to fall to the ground, and I'm sure this place will feel it." He explained,

"Well the good news is we got everyone in town armed with silver, and Mick and Amaya are out looking for the cause of all this." Jax said but no one really looked to be put at much ease by his words.

"Oh yes, our two teammates who have been infected by the wolves are out and serving as our only hope of cutting off the source, comforting." Stein said in the closest excuse for sarcasm that his voice could reach without going into panic.

"Hey, Amaya has control over her mutation." Nate said in the dark haired woman's defense. "I think its Mick that we have to worry about."

"I don't know man," Jax said, "Over the comm she did not sound like she was in much of a mood to be babysitting him today."

"Yeah well," Ray began in nervous acknowledgment, "They've worked together before when she wanted to kill him they can do it again." He finished, although it was unclear who he was trying to convince of his words, the others or himself.

* * *

"I ain't smelling that," Mick bluntly stated, he and Amaya were currently standing in the office of the Waverider and staring down at the dagger which rested on the desk, untouched ever since Sara put it there weeks ago.

"Why not?" Amaya practically growled.

"It's stupid," Mick rumbled in reply and that had Amaya rolling her eyes.

"What are you, twelve years old?" She demanded, normally she would just roll her eyes at Mick before doing whatever it was he was refusing herself, but in light of recent events she was a little less willing to pick up any of his slack today.

"Why can't you do it?" He asked, "You've got more control than I do anyway."

"If your enhanced hearing works without you going off the hinges then so will your enhanced smell." She said, her tone snarky as she could manage it before she mumbled. "And unfortunately so does mine."

Mick lifted an eyebrow at the comment and looked to Amaya from the corner of his eye, debating whether or not he wanted to comment on what was obviously an opening for yet another verbal attack.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He said, apparently deciding that he was going to let her go on with her insults and attitude, not that he could blame her.

"It means you smell," She bluntly replied and to be completely honest Mick hadn't expected such a cold answer from her, no hint of remorse anywhere in her features whatsoever.

"You know," he began as he picked up the dagger and examined it, pretending to be fascinated by the way its blade caught the light. "If I had realized biting you would turn you into a bitch in more ways than one… I might have reconsidered." He said, looking at her for a reaction. He had just called her a bitch, something that she would NEVER let him get away with no matter how much she was acting like one. So yeah, he was waiting for her to hit him. Counting on it actually. But instead she rolled her eyes in the disgusted way she had been all day.

"Doubtful," she grumbled and he huffed, he still wasn't regretting biting her but he was starting to miss the Amaya who had been his friend.

"Whatever," he muttered before extending the dagger out to her, but as expected she didn't take it.

"What?" She asked, meeting his gaze with challenging eyes, daring him to ask her to take the weapon again.

"You do it," he said but she wouldn't waiver.

"I don't want to," she told him.

"Why not?" He demanded, a frustrated growl beginning to overtake his voice.

"Why don't you?" She challenged, not the least bit intimidated by his hulking form and voice, even when he took a step into her personal space.

Or at least, she didn't let him see that she was afraid.

"I asked you first," he replied calmly and she rolled her eyes again, her fear relaxing but she still made no move to give in.

"You're the one who needs to work on control." She reminded him and he barked out a laugh.

"I'm the one?" He mocked, "No offence honey, but if memory serves you're the one who spent most of last night running around WITH me." He reminded smugly and Amaya bit at the inside of her lip in anger.

"I lost control for a few hours," she admitted, "You had to wait for the sun to come back up." She reminded but Mick merely grunted. "Look," she began, finally deciding that it was time to drop at least part of her attitude and take some pity on the arsonist. "The wolf isn't going to rear its head just because you're using its sense of smell, just like with the hearing. Your new senses are innate, so don't suppress them." She instructed and maybe it was the sudden return of softness in her voice or maybe it was simply being tired of the argument, but Mick eyed her warily for a moment before holding the dagger carefully below his nose as he took an experimental sniff. "Make sure you get Merlyn's scent, not Sara's." Amaya reminded and Mick grunted in acknowledgment just before he pulled the dagger away from himself.

"I think I got it," he told her before offering her the weapon. She raised an eyebrow at his actions, wondering if he had really just faked smelling it. "Only if you want it," he assured her, "Just figure that two noses are better than one." He reasoned and with a small, appreciative, smile she took the blade from him and inhaled deeply.

There were a few different scents residing on the dagger. One of them was fresh but weak, that one obviously belonged to Mick. Another wasn't quite as fresh but had definitely come to reside there more recently than the third and most dominant scent. That final one was the only one that was strange to Amaya, as the second smelled of incense that she knew belonged to Sara. But this strange scent was a mix of many things, though mostly expensive cologne and some lingering smog from Chicago. That was the scent that they needed to latch onto, and once she had it she looked up at Mick and nodded.

"Let's go," she said and so without another word the two of them were on their way to, hopefully, put an end to all this.


	6. Chapter 6

It took them awhile, Mick and Amaya, to get a fix on Merlyn's scent outside of the ship. In fact they were beginning to think that the Legion of Doom, as Nate had recently named them, might not even be here and they could be dealing with something else entirely. But then Mick remembered that Mary had said something about her father working in a factory, and if he really was one of the first infected than that might be a good place to look. After asking a few residents for directions the two Legend's found that the nearest factory was just outside of the town and it was known for manufacturing paper. Sure enough Merlyn's scent finally began getting stronger the closer that they got, but the fact that it was mixing with all the other smells of the factory was serving to create headaches for both of the Legends.

"Well at least we know it's them," Amaya grumbled as she and Mick poked around the machines of the factory, working their way towards the back of the building where the scent seemed to slowly grow stronger.

"You sound worried," Mick observed and in reply Amaya glanced up at the skylight of the building, taking note that she could no longer see the sun.

"Can you blame me?" She asked in a cautious voice, Mick looked up to before looking back at Amaya, this time in surprise.

"You're afraid you're going to go wolf?" He asked and she shrugged.  
"I don't know," She admitted, she had mastered the art of controlling the animal within her years ago but for whatever reason the wolf was harder. Yes, it was something that she would physically turn into, so that's different. But the way it took over felt very much the same as the animals from her totem, yet the urge to give into it was so much stronger that it bordered on overbearing.

"So what if you do?" Mick asked, suddenly snapping her from her thoughts.

"Excuse me?" She questioned but he only shrugged.

"You brought yourself back from the wolf, and I ain't saying that didn't take strength because it damn sure did, I couldn't do it. But you're the one who told me not to deny the animal."

"This isn't the same animal, Mick." She reminded him, "We hurt people last night, or do you not remember?" She asked, the bite in her voice filled with venom and hate that he couldn't hold her completely responsible for.

She knew that he remembers the events of the previous night, and for the first time he began to consider that she might just hate him more for that than for biting her in the first place. Neither of them was in total control of their actions last night, but they were enough that he knew what he was doing when he bit her. He hadn't realized it earlier but he made her hurt people.

He was snapped from his thoughts, however, when a familiar sensation came over him. She felt it too; he knew that without asking. The world outside of the factory was growing dark and with every passing second the feral rage boiled up inside of each of them more and more violently. They both tried to fight it, even after his vision blurred into black and white Mick saw Amaya hunched over on all fours and very clearly in pain but still not transforming, still refusing to give in.

"Well, well, well." A familiar and yet strange voice mocked from behind him, but Mick couldn't think clearly enough to turn around.

But Amaya, all she had to do was look up. She began snarling when she did, drool pouring out her mouth and her sharpened teeth revealing themselves. It didn't take long for her body to morph and match the expression on her face. Mick followed her example and gave up his own fight against the wolf. After all if Amaya couldn't defeat it than what chance could he possibly have?

He never got an answer to his unasked question, not that he expected he would. He had just barely transformed when a numbing pain erupted in his shoulder, and then everything around him went black.

* * *

"We're running out of time guys!" Sara chastised as she hurried into the med bay where the team's two resident scientists, along with the historian hovering over their shoulders, were trying to create a working antidote to the wolf problem.

"We're almost done," Ray claimed while he swished some sort of concoction around in a vile. "Man I wish Mick and Amaya were here to test this."

Sara pretended not to hear his mumblings, she had tried contacting their two teammates to check their progress in finding Merlyn and received no answer on the comms, and so she could only assume that they had both transformed when the sun went down.

"Ok, it should be done." Ray's exclamation pulled Sara out of her thoughts.

"Great, now how are we supposed to spread it out all over town?" Jax questioned as he walked in and joined the group.

"Well last night we locked every wolf up in the asylum and, unlike those idiot nurses, we actually shut their doors and locked their chains. For now they should all still be there." Sara said as Ray, Stein, and Nate began loading the antidote into various tranquilizer darts.

"What if some of them are gone?" Jax asked, knowing that all it would take would be one surviving wolf and all of their effort would be down the drain.

"We've still got a dog whistle," Sara replied dismissively, her mind still half focused on the unknown fate of their currently missing friends.

"See?" Ray questioned with a grin, "Everything will be fine."

* * *

When Mick came to his senses he was able to come to one conclusion; he and Amaya were in deep trouble.

For starters his vision was in black and white, which meant that he was a wolf. He could see bars all around him; he was inside of a cage. That made him angry, or angrier anyway, as he was already pretty mad that someone had clearly gotten the jump on him and Amaya. Speaking of Amaya she was in the cage with him, not that he would've been able to recognize her by her appearance. She looked very much the way that he imagined he must, a canine body covered in thick, dark fur. She had a few shreds of her jumpsuit still clinging to her body here and there, just like he did in regards to his own clothes. Her eyes were narrowed dangerously he noticed, focused intently on something on the ground of their cage. Looking at it Mick couldn't identify it as anything special, it looked like a belt or something. He tried to get closer, but thought better of it when Amaya began growling in warning. Yet he tried again, so obviously Amaya had no choice but to take a snapping bite at his offending nose. He jumped back just before her teeth could make contact, starring at her in fear as she fixed him with the most fearsome and feral look he had ever seen. Her teeth bared and her nose scrunched, it was quite possible that she hadn't meant the bite as another warning and did in fact intend to kill him if he tried getting between her and that belt again.

"I wouldn't do that Mr. Rory," A voice, a very condescending voice, cut him out of his little bubble and made him realize that he and Amaya were not alone.

He looked up, the cage not being like Mary's and made of wood but instead resembling a larger scale version of the ones common in 2017, only to see the entirety of the Legion of Evil, or whatever the pretty boys had nicknamed them.

"You know how wild animals are," Merlyn began to say, "So protective and vicious over everything."

Mick growled at the man and his friends, barring his teeth before he began barking at them. How dare they do this to Amaya! He could deal with it; he's been treated like a dangerous animal all his life. But Amaya has control over that part of her. The Legion of Assholes had no right to take that away from her!

"You're the one who bit her," The annoyingly familiar sound of Snart's voice sounded from behind him and Mick wasted no time in turning his verbal attack onto the ghost.

"Testy creature," Thawne observed as Mick spun around and continued barking at the back wall of the cage.

"What is he barking at?" Darhk wondered aloud and the man who had recruited him here shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," Eobard insisted as he turned away from the cage, followed quickly by his two recruits. "This is two Legends down and five left to go." He said, "Now I'm going to take a little trip, best to see the big city while it's still standing. In the meantime I think that it might be a good idea for you boys to get ready for tonight." He said with a wicked grin that both Merlyn and Darhk soon matched, both knowing all to well that fun was still yet to really begin.

* * *

For those at the asylum the _fun_ felt to be already in full swing. The five Legends had arrived just as the sun set and only managed to administer one or two doses of the antidote before all hell essentially broke loose. Firestorm was quick to bar the doors and remain in that position, sending a blast of fire in the direction of any oncoming wolves in order to keep them in the building.

"I had no idea you were so skilled in holding off multiple enemies Jefferson." Stein praised over the psychic link as Jax threw fireball after fireball and never missed a single shot, despite the fact that wolves were constantly coming from all sides and they were trying to avoid actually hitting as many as possible.

"I told you video games aren't a waste of my time!" The younger man shouted out loud, even though he was talking to a voice inside his head. Nevertheless Stein sighed at the proclamation, remembering how his other half had once claimed to have been a "video game king" during his elementary and middle school years.

Elsewhere in the asylum Sara had found herself suddenly wishing she had participated more in the horse-riding lessons during summer camp when she was a kid. Ray's darts were working just fine but with the wolves running wild in such close quarters it hadn't taken long for even the trained assassin to be knocked off her feet. However the manner in which she was knocked off her feet was via one particularly angry wolf running between her legs and lifting her off the ground. Sara, acting on instinct, grabbed onto its fur to keep from falling off and then jammed one of her darts into its flesh. As the creature began collapsing beneath her Sara grabbed onto the neck of another passing wolf and repeated the process. She continued doing this from one wolf to another and it wasn't long that between Ray, Nate, and herself every wolf had dropped and transformed back into their unconscious human forms.

"There, that wasn't so hard." Ray said as the entire team converged into the main lobby of the asylum.

"We're not done yet," Sara reminded the team, "We still have to find Mick and Amaya."

"Still no answer on their comms?" Jax questioned and as expected Sara shook her head.

"No and Gideon wasn't having luck tracking them," she huffed.

"They were tracking Merlyn, they could be anywhere by now." Nate offered, not that it was a very helpful reminder.

"And without an enhanced sense of smell, how are we supposed to track them?" Ray asked.

"Don't know," Sara said, "But considering Gideon can't even track them I'm assuming that means that Malcolm has them."

"Meaning that the chances of finding them before the earthquake is slim to none." Nate said and Sara nodded with a huff at the reminder that they're on a clock here, because nothing can ever be easy for this team.

"We better hurry then," she said and so with that order the team left the asylum.


	7. Chapter 7

Mick was still barking at the vision of Snart, only vaguely aware that the entirety of the Legion had left the room and gone off to do whatever it was they were planning on doing. The ghost remained silent against the wall of the room, glaring down at Mick through the bars of the cage and occasionally making snarky comments about the incessant yapping. It was so like Snart and that only served to make Mick angrier. He couldn't understand for the life of him why his mind continued to pester him with this vision, especially at the worst possible moments, but then again Mick had never exactly been an expert in controlling his thoughts.

One thing he had been an expert in, though, was accepting the hand that he had been dealt.

Snart always said it was one of his shortcomings, the way that he was always so quick to make himself comfortable every time he was thrown into iron heights and how he was never one for coming up with a plan. Snart was always striving to go one step further, to be the best at whatever it was that he was doing. Now Mick was always willing to go along with whatever plan that the boss had in mind, but if left to his own devises he was more than content to sit back and wait for someone who knew how to come up with a plan to do so. He had never been good at planning and he was ok with that. He'd found himself a friend who he could depend on early enough in life and had been just fine with their arrangement until they got on the Waverider and suddenly they didn't have the same agendas anymore. After that he had been passed off to the Time Masters, then back to Snart, then to Sara when she was elected Captain, and now he would need to rely on Amaya.

The problem was that Amaya was still rather distracted by the belt lying beneath her, meaning that if she were ever going to be able to think clearly enough to change back into her human form and get them out of here Mick would need to first snap her out of her violent haze.

So he decided to ignore the bored looking ghost, oh sure he wanted to claw the damn thing's eyes out but it was outside of the cage and he was inside, not to mention it probably wasn't physically solid, so he couldn't. He was still faced with anger when he turned away from it, but nothing that he could do anything about. Instead he turned his barking onto Amaya, hoping that he could at least get her attention. He knew that she couldn't understand any words he might try to say, as they had learned the previous night that communicating as wolves relied heavily on body language and reading the emotion behind noises, no explicit messages. She did acknowledge him after awhile, though it was in the form of a feral growl that was probably intended as "SHUT UP!" before she turned back to her stupid belt. Not pleased in the least with her reaction, and more than fed up with her fixation on that dumb belt, Mick decided that he really only had one option if he was ever going to get anywhere.

He needed to get that belt away from Amaya.

Seeing really only one real way of doing this without immediately dying Mick pawed at the plastic ground of the cage once and then once more to build himself up before he charged at Amaya and tackled her to the ground. He rose to his feet before her writhing form could bite him, and he managed to just catch a glance at the belt before she was up and pinning him to the floor. She stood over him snarling, so he looked up at her with wide eyes that he hoped weren't threatening. He'd gotten all that he needed to understand why she was so obsessed with that belt.

Its buckle was the symbol of an hourglass.

He isn't stupid, or at least he isn't as stupid as most people think. He could figure out that the belt belonged to her dead boyfriend. She wasn't going to let him get anywhere near close enough to get rid of it, hell he knew he was lucky when she crawled off of him and turned back to it. The Legion was smart, they'd planned for Amaya being able to control the wolf inside of her and so they gave her something to keep her angry. The two of them were as good as dead if she couldn't snap out of it, and at this rate where she wasn't even giving Mick a second glance when he tried getting through to her it was looking like the plan might work.

But Mick wasn't mad, he couldn't be.

He had no lighter or matches, he couldn't shred anybody with his bare claws, and ultimately there was nothing that he could do. He was calm, the animal obviously free but with nothing to entertain it it quickly grew board.

 _"Don't deny the animal,"_ Amaya's words from a few weeks ago rang out in his mind, _"But don't let it control you either."_

 _"She could really stand to listen to her own advice right about now."_ Mick thought, knowing that Amaya wasn't going to take her own advice.

But him?

When she had suggested that such a thing was possible, for him to be in control of the animal, he had thought her a liar. But right now he was starting to reconsider. With nothing in or around the cage to keep him angry he was calm, able to think straight, and to his own amazement he soon found his body shifting back into it's human form. He couldn't help the fact that his eyes went wide in amazement, and sure he noticed how much more cramped the cage suddenly was but there was still enough room for him and Amaya both. Besides, with his hands returned to him Mick could now reach through the bars and free them.

Obviously Amaya wasn't blind to any of this, just like she wasn't blind to the fact that he was mostly naked as he crawled out of the cage, but she quickly derailed her mind from that train of thought. Once he was free of their little cell she bent down and with her teeth gently took Rex's belt in her mouth before following him out into the room.

"Put the belt down Vix," He finally said, effectively snapping her out of her moment of half-clarity. Rage once again set over her mind like a storm cloud, the memory of Rex's bleeding body lying on the floor of the JSA headquarters making her own blood boil in her veins.

"Amaya!" Mick's shout fell on deaf ears, and if he continued trying to get through to her Amaya didn't hear him. Only when he dared to try grabbing the belt from her mouth did she drop it in favor of biting his hand, to which he let out a cry of pain but impressively fought the urge to yank back the hand.

"They're baiting you," he told her once he had more or less come to terms with the pain, enough so to speak that is. "They want to keep you angry, they know you can't think straight with that belt in front of you." Her forceful bite lessoned just ever so slightly, "Put the animal away Amaya, it's time to go." He said, echoing the very words that she had said to him back in the old west.

Her eyes sparkled with recognition, be it of the words or of Mick himself the arsonist couldn't quite say. But either way she slowly unclamped her jaw to free his hand before her body began shifting back into its usual form.

Mick looked away when she began changing, and instead chose to focus on ripping one of the few shreds left of his shirt and using it to contain the blood pouring out of the bite mark on his hand. He couldn't look away forever, he knew that, and so eventually he had to turn back around. What was left of her jumpsuit was enough to cover her down below; much like his own jeans, but the top was torn up in ways that had him consciously reminding himself to look at her eyes.

"Whoa," A voice gasped from behind Mick, resulting him in whirling around to see Sara and the rest of the team standing at a crowded halt in the doorway.

"Uh… you guys call for a rescue?" Haircut asked in a weak croak of a voice, he had clearly been planning that line and was intent on using it.

"Wolf physicality doesn't really match up with human clothing," Amaya offered as a means of explanation.

"But I thought that you said you knew how to control it?" Nate questioned, Amaya opened her mouth as though to answer but Mick spoke up before she could get a word out.

"Merlyn ambushed us, knocked us out." He said, "She wasn't awake to fight it."

"Well you're both awake, and human, now." Sara said before the conversation could go any further.

"By some miracle," Mick muttered, "Once the fighting starts I can't guarantee that I'll stay human."

"Which is precisely why we brought these," Stein spoke up, entering the room with two small darts in his hands.

"You want us to play darts?" Mick asked, partially sarcastic as usual.

"We loaded the antidote into them," Sara explained, "Good news is it'll cure ya, bad news is you'll be unconscious for at least a few hours; the people at the asylum were all still out when we left."

Mick and Amaya each took a dart, but then looked at each other, weighing the options and silently asking what the other one was going to choose.

"Later," Amaya finally decided and handed her dart back to Stein, Mick following her example. "We're more useful being part wolf." She defended when Sara looked at her with a question in her eyes, Mick nodded in agreement.

"In that case, do you think you can track the Legion again?" Nate asked,

"No need," a voice rang out from behind the group who turned to see Merlyn and Darhk standing there. "We're right here."

"Where's Thawne?" Sara demanded as she and the rest of her team took up their fighting positions, Merlyn and Darhk only smirked to each other.

"I'm afraid you're too late Miss Lance," Darhk told her mockingly, "Eobard is already well on his way to San Francisco, in fact he's probably already on his way back." He continued with that smug grin on his face that made Sara's blood boil even more.

"Sorry," Merlyn taunted and Sara only grinned wickedly.

"Don't be," She teased before turning around and tossing her sonic device to Mick, which he only barely caught. "Get to the Waverider and stop Thawne." She ordered and Amaya nodded.

With that the fight began, Mick and Amaya wasting no time in transforming back into wolves. Obviously Darhk and Merlyn tried to stop them so really the two Legends had no choice but to act in accordance with their newly acquired instincts, besides, the rest of the team had just taken down an entire asylum full of werewolves, they could handle two more.

* * *

Mick was more than a little worried that by the time he and Amaya made it back to the ship they wouldn't be able to change back in order to be able to fly it. But by some miracle they were and by an even bigger miracle they were able to get the wolf serum away from Thawne before he could infect anybody with it. They couldn't get ahold of him, he raced off too fast. But there was some satisfaction to be taken in the knowledge that by the time he returned to his hide out he would be dealing with two wolfified partners and no antidote left behind. So after picking up the rest of the team and getting their own doses of the antidote from Stein, Mick and Amaya each passed out in their respective bedrooms in order to sleep it off. Thus Sara brought the ship into the temporal zone to give everyone some downtime.

Mick opted to spend that downtime in his room with his beers once he was awake, and dressed in some of his clothes that hadn't been ruined by his transforming into a wolf. His door was open, although why he didn't have the sense to close it after all this time was lost on him. Anyway he was on his third beer when Amaya brushed up against the doorway, just watching him for a minute and he was content to let her.

"You changed back," she finally broke the silence, getting right to the point apparently.

"You weren't going to," he replied as he took another sip of his beer and she came in, taking a seat on an overturned crate in front of him and resting her elbows on her knees.

"You're right," she admitted and he raised an eyebrow, of all the things that she could've said he had not been expecting it to be that. "They knew exactly how to handle me, to keep the animal in control." Still he said nothing, "But not you," she mused, "They didn't have a plan for you."

"Probably figured they didn't need one," he replied with a shrug, "Unlike you, I'm not exactly known for my control."

Amaya chewed on her lip when he said that, her eyes avoiding his gaze while he took another swig of his beer and let her think on what she would say next.

"Yeah," she finally muttered before looking up, "I had almost forgotten what it's like for the animal to take over, how sometimes you don't even realize that you're not in control."

"Is this going somewhere?" Mick grumbled, swishing what was left of his beer around at the bottom of the bottle.

Amaya smirked at his impatience, "I owe you an apology," she said, earning back is interest. "When you first went wolf I chased after you and basically just shouted at you to get a grip, I'd almost forgotten how hard that can be sometimes."

Mick let out a long sigh as he reached forward and set down his beer.

"Well I guess I owe you an apology too," he said, earning her attention because he certainly isn't normally the type to say he's sorry. "When I bit you I wasn't exactly thinking straight." He began, "I was just so freaking pissed off that controlling something like that could be so easy for you," he grumbled and while he may have expected Amaya to get angry with him, she instead smiled and rose to her feet.

"I know," she said before leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Thank you."


End file.
